Good day! Hopefully by now you have heard of the Ubuntu Global Jam [1] coming up in March. The dates for the Global Jam this cycle are the 26th through the 28th of March 2010. We are hoping to make this Global Jam extremely successful, and we need your help in doing it. We are wanting to have events in as many places as possible not only to help to improve Ubuntu, but also to help promote Ubuntu. What is the Global Jam? The Ubuntu Global Jam is an online and in person event that takes place all across the world. People get together with the interest of making Ubuntu better, while having a good time socializing with other people near you who have the same interest and passion about Ubuntu as you do. What can your LoCo do? The Ubuntu Global Jam has many different events that for users to participate in, just pick what you and your members like, and make it happen. You can pick from one or more of the following events: Bug Jam - During a bug jam users would work on finding, triaging and fixing bugs. Testing Jam - Lucid is due out the end of April and we need help testing it out prior to its release. Upgrade Jam - Upgrade systems that are currently running older versions of Ubuntu and report your experience. Documentation Jam - Write documentation about using Ubuntu, or joining the Ubuntu community, or work on making the existing documentation better. Translations Jam - Help to make Ubuntu available to everyone. Help translate Ubuntu into your language. Packaging Jam - Help out with improving packages in Ubuntu. Other - If your team has some other aspect of helping out the Ubuntu Community, feel free to participate in that for the Global Jam. You can find out more information about the different types of Jams on the Ubuntu Global Jams wiki page [1]. How do we run a Jam? If you have never run a Global Jam event before, or if you have, but would like some fresh ideas, we have three training sessions scheduled between now and the Global Jam event. The training sessions will be held by JorgeCastro and will be held in #ubuntu-locoteams on freenode. The training sessions will take place on: 17 February 2010 at 18:00 UTC 26 February 2010 at 2100 UTC 10 March 2010 at 2100 UTC All three training sessions will contain tips, tricks, pointers and advice on how to run a Jam. You can also find out more information at the Running An Event page [2] on the Ubuntu Wiki. What is needed to run a Jam? In order to effectively run a Jam, each event will need a place to meet that has a decent internet connection, as well as some computers, and an area that users can work in. Suggested places are Universities, schools, and neighborhood centers. Don't forget after you find a place to run your Jam and have decided what your LoCo wants to do during the Jam, you need to get the word out about your Jam! Blog about it, post it on Twitter and Identi.ca, place it on the Ubuntu Global Jam Events page [2], send emails to your LoCo's mailing lists, and anything else that you can think of. The more people that participate, the more fun that you will have, and the more help that can be provided to improve Ubuntu. Need more help? Read about what other LoCo's have done at their Global Jam events for more thoughts and ideas [3] and if you are still in need of more help, or have questions that aren't covered anywhere, feel free to contact myself via email or on IRC, or attend one of the training sessions listed above. [1] <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam</a> [2] <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Jams" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Jams</a> [3] <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Events</a> [4] <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Stories" target="_blank">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam/Stories</a> Respectfully, Chris Johnston - cjohnston Ubuntu Member <a href="mailto:chrisjohnston@ubuntu.com" target="_blank">chrisjohnston@ubuntu.com</a> <a href="http://www.chrisjohnston.org/" target="_blank">www.chrisjohnston.org</a>